back to article Nokia lets Lumia 820 owners 3D print their own case

Nokia has posted the templates 3D printer users need to make their own shell or case for its Lumia 820 smartphone. The mobe is already designed to swap some of its plastic parts, with the rear plate available as inert plastic or one of Nokia's inductive charging gadgets. Three different batches of files are offered to DIY …

COMMENTS

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  1. Adam 1

    makes sense

    There is no point in setting up a factory like for accessories when I know that both of them are happy without a fancy cover.

    1. LarsG
      Meh

      I suppose

      I suppose it is an attempt to make the phone a more desirable proposition, though you might be better off selling them with a years free supply of petrol.

      1. Harry
        Alert

        "you might be better off selling them with a years free supply of petrol"

        And there was me thinking that nokias ran on diesel.

    2. JDX Gold badge

      Re: makes sense

      Good to see Adam's sense of humour is firing on both brain cells with that original joke.

  2. Steve Button Silver badge

    BYOP? PYOD more like

    'nuf said.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pointless Bling

    Still can't hide a shit phone OS.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Pointless Bling

      Good job it's not shit then.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Windows

        Re: Pointless Bling

        "Good job it's not shit then."

        Well, it looks like it, and it stinks like it. I for sure won't taste it to see if it is shit or not - it was bad enough having been given a WP7 phone and finding out it really is shit - but if you tasted it, well, it was your choice...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Windows

      Re: Pointless Bling

      Yes because i bet you have weeks of experience using it so can provide valid and substantiated reasons for your dislike, or are you one of Eadons lapdogs???

  4. annodomini2
    Mushroom

    Interesting Pre-cept

    Sounds like Nokia are trying to play the long game.

    Android got into the market by appealing nerd/geek/[insert other stereotype] segment of the market. Some of this segment will be software engineers, which gets them interested in the App side.

    So they sneakily had a dev base, before the system went mainstream, this is where WinPho 7/8 falls down. Windows Phone has been in the market for ages, and it's predecessors were absolute garbage. 7 and 8 are an improvement, but they missed the boat.

    The only thing that may save them is that Apple appears to have lost it's direction.

    The fundamental weakness in this concept is that the steam has run out on the 3D printing fad, simply because the stuff you get out of the affordable home machines is so crap and the amount of effort required to get these machines working correctly, far outweighs the benefits.

    There will be resurgence when the off the shelf tech gets to an affordable price point, but to me this is a cliche headline marketing bumpf. Rather than a solution to a non-existent problem.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Interesting Pre-cept

      >There will be resurgence when the off the shelf tech gets to an affordable price point, but to me this is a cliche headline marketing bumpf.

      Agreed, when the Nokia rep put out the idea, he suggested the user making "a waterproof, glow in the dark case with a bottle opener". No.

      The home user is often better off with some epoxy for making little things that. Kydex is a handy formable sheet material- well suited for making dashboard cradles for phones etc. Loving Sikaflex at the moment- a very strong adhesive and sealant, remains permanently flexible after curing.

      I'm still assuming that no more people will own a 3D printer than currently own that hobbyist's favourite, a Dremel hand drill. I can currently see more practical uses for a desktop laser cutter for thin materials than a 3D printer in the home- larger functional objects, stencils, jigs... and yes, bottle openers.

  5. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
    Pirate

    Now that's real innovation.

    Might be pointless, might not, but decent disruptive innovation. Well played, Nokia.

    GJC

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Now that's real innovation.

      I fail to see what's disruptive or innovative about this announcement. For a start, do you have any idea how much it would cost in terms of machinery and materials to produce a decent quality casing (i.e. to the same standard as the original) via a 3D printer? To give you a hint, it'll be several orders of magnitude higher than buying a moulded, third party case, via eBay.

      No, this is merely a cynical marketing ploy whereby Nokia hope to drum up sales of their phone through the use of some carefully chosen buzzwords in a press release.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: Now that's real innovation.

        >To give you a hint, it'll be several orders of magnitude higher than buying a moulded, third party case, via eBay.

        That's very true, if thousands of other people buy the same case. Which they probably will- I can't imagine someone having case requirements that are so off-the-wall that they are thy only person who have them.

        Now, is some someone going to print a prototype case with a chorded-keyboard built in or what?

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: Now that's real innovation.

          >Now, is some someone going to print a prototype case with a chorded-keyboard built in or what?

          Just found someone has done just that and implemented it. His blog is here:

          http://srimech.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/chorded-keyboard-for-mobile-phones.html

          He wouldn't need the external battery if he owned an Android phone with USB OTG support...

      2. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
        Boffin

        @AC

        Just because you can't see how it is innovation, doesn't mean it isn't.

        It's something no other company has done. Whether anyone picks it up and does something useful with it we will see over time, but meantime, we should applaud any company that does something unusual and new, however small.

        If you don't understand that, perhaps you should just stick to Apple products :-)

        GJC

  6. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    I'm sure the handfull of real Windows Phone users are delighted

    They can buy a £400 3D printer to print a £2 case...

    Is this how bad it's got? Microsoft trying to create "cool factor" with their failed products? It's Kinect all over again....

    1. dogged
      Stop

      Re: I'm sure the handfull of real Windows Phone users are delighted

      a) Nokia, not Microsoft.

      b) Shut up Barry.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'm sure the handfull of real Windows Phone users are delighted

      Or you can design what you want and email it off to an Internet 3D printing bureau and they'll send it back to you.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'm sure the handfull of real Windows Phone users are delighted

      This is not really aimed at consumers at home to make them, it is for small local businesses to offer services.

      So you can walk into a shop and have your own logo or image on a case.

      Honestly, Barry you have no imagination. Don't ever start a business whatever you do.

  7. DrXym

    Not for amateurs

    None of the rep rap / makerbot printers have anything like the precision to churn out a phone case which doesn't look really awful and have serious issues snapping shut. The effort might have greater success if it spurs Chinese manufacturers to spew out hundreds of colourful phone covers like they used to do in the days of yore for the 3210 and similar models.

  8. mark l 2 Silver badge

    it sounds like a nice idea from Nokia but i think the problem will be the percentage of people who own a 3D printer and also a Lumia is going to be about 0.000001% of the population.

    Hopefully in might encourage all manufacturers to do this in the future though for when 3D printers do become more common.

  9. Jess

    Anyone who can afford a 3D printer, could afford a 920

    So providing they haven't got any prejudices against NoWin. (e.g. upset about a previous OS being dropped like a hot potato) there could be a market, and given how bad things are for Nokia smart phones, any market has to be good.

    Otherwise they will just wait a few weeks until an Android firm does the same.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Anyone who can afford a 3D printer, could afford a 920

      "So providing they haven't got any prejudices against NoWin. (e.g. upset about a previous OS being dropped like a hot potato"

      Doesn't sound like prejudice - sounds like commonsense

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Meh

    Who cares about printing a new case?

    Give us something that can print a new CEO.

  11. Thomas Whipp

    Missing the point of 3d printing...

    3d printing is ideal for low volume runs and you can print via services like shapeways.

    Having accurate 3d models for a phone case could open up a range of cases that you'd never produce in volume - and I'm thinking work type applications. E.g. a clipboard which has the phone case as part of it to hold it steady, a case with loops to allow it to be held securely by a lanyard, etc...

    For some corporates it could also be attractive to be able to design and print their own custom case with logo.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Missing the point of 3d printing...

      Yours is the only suggestion for a use case for 3D printing that has made any sense whatsoever - congratulations!

      As others have said: your typical hobbyist 3D printer won't be able to hold the tolerances needed to make a case work - you need a professional grade printer for that. The cost of printing a case with such a printer exceeds the cost of finding the case you want, ordering it, and having it shipped to you.

      But yes, if you are making a clipboard with the phone slotted in to it, or a custom dashboard inlay, or other ideas beyond a simple snap-over case, then this does become brilliant, and I hope other phone makers will see fit to follow suit.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: Missing the point of 3d printing...

        It might be worth looking at a material called Kydex for phone holders... it most common hobbyist application is for gun holsters and knife sheaves- the sheet of Kydex is heated and formed around the object it will house. When cooled it retains flexibility and can be sanded etc.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm sick of hearing the same old shite on the site.

    WinPhone8 is great. I don’t care that the world is full of sheepish "people" who have no opinion of their own, following the crowd and waffling the same crap time and time again, with 99% not having any hands on experience.

    The first person to mention apps needs killed. Who cares the Crapple App store has thousands of USELESS and CRAPPY apps? A few useful apps is all one needs.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      @Obviously!

      Hallelujah! (and no, I don't use a Windows phone, but this post makes sense)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Obviously!

      Can you tell me please, how can I put the certificates on a windows phone (7 or 8, you choose), to configure an Exchange mail account without mailling them to an webmail account?

      1. dogged
        Unhappy

        Re: @Obviously!

        You can't, which sucks. Massively sucks.

        That, and the lack of banking apps, are the two main reasons I don't recommend WP. If the banks stopped their "iphone is enough" thing and MS fixed that fucking security issue, it'd be a top flight OS.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: @Obviously!

        @Jah Bless: I used skydrive for my phones (first a wp7.5 then a wp8) and loaded them on that way. You could also point your phone at a local exchange server, mail the key to the phone's user and download it over an internal wifi connection. Once you've installed the key you can then set it up for internet hosted push email.

        I'm sure there are other ways, but these are the only ones I've tried.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Flame

          Re: @Obviously!

          @Posted Tuesday 22nd January 2013 13:08 GMT

          Anonymous Coward

          Let me explain straight away: I want to put t the damn bloddy certs on the phone, not in the sky high nor a wacky wi-fi network that don't exist for many reasons security included. So, whats my point? If Windows Phone its the next big thing, how on Earth I can't upload the stupid certs on the phone using the Zune software for example?*SIGH*....

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      So you wasted your money on Windows Phone

      and you want everyone else to make the same mistake... we get that...

      I have several Windows Phones here (as dev units), and I would never use one for real use, they are simply too buggy, rubbish battery life, and no apps. Really given a Nexus4 is so cheap, there is absolutely NO reason to own any of the Lumia range.

      1. andy 45

        Re: So you wasted your money on Windows Phone

        Is that you Eadon?

  13. 1Rafayal

    Hardware Piracy

    Bit off topic, but I wonder how long it will be until hardware piracy will become the vogue?

    I remember the days before broadband, if you wanted some dodgy software there were people over in Asia ready and willing to sell you DVD's of pirated apps and games. I remember being able to email some dude over in Indonesia and get a jiffy bag full of 'HK Silvers' for the PSX as well as Windows apps.

    With 3D printers becoming more and more accessible to the ordinary person, I wonder how long it will be until we can print our own knock-off iPhone clones, without having to buy them from Chinese websites?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Windows

      Re: Hardware Piracy

      Well, until they can print silicon, tantalum, lithium, cadmium and a raft of other metals, plus do 60nm or whatever to print the processors, i think a long time!!!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hardware Piracy

        @Cornz 1 - I suspect the comment was more along the lines of "How long 'till we see knock off lego."

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: Hardware Piracy

          >"How long 'till we see knock off lego."

          You'd have a helluva job... Lego is injection moulded to very high tolerances. I did stumble across a tech website recently that plotted the standard deviation for Lego bricks made in different decades. Making Lego bricks is the very opposite of what you'd want a 3D printer for.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Hardware Piracy

            @Dave: These guys seem to have had a good go at it: http://fffff.at/free-universal-construction-kit/

            1. Dave 126 Silver badge

              Re: Hardware Piracy

              Ohhh, I see- 'adaptor bricks' to allow different brands of construction kit to be used together! Nice.

              Yeah, making individual parts to be used with (or replace broken parts of) existing manufactured products is exactly what 3D printing is good for.

              (though still not for making thousands of identical units, which is what I thought was meant)

    2. Brydo

      Re: Hardware Piracy

      With 3D printers becoming more and more accessible to the ordinary person, I wonder how long it will be until we can print our own knock-off iPhone clones, without having to buy them from Chinese websites?

      "We" - - Who actually buys a clone iPhone?

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